As the 55th Annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) kicked off, gun wielding right-wingers showed up armed with assault weapons to intimidate the Muslims. They were yelling, “Your moon god will bow down to our real god, you must be saved by Jesus” while they marched with their guns. The intent was to intimidate the thousands of Muslims in attendance for the three-day event.

The conference, which is being held at the George R. Brown Event Center at Houston, Texas, was targeted for protest by the White Supremacist groups ‘Soldiers of Oden’ and the ‘Texas Patriot Network’. The protest was organized by Official MAGA girl Denise Ruiz and Doc Greene, a local radio personality. Doc Greene told the Houston Chronicle that, “He wanted every Muslim that comes to America to become an American, and we want them to know that Sharia Law is a really bad idea…We also want people to know that we are grateful for our president Donald Trump, for making America great again”.

The protesters could be heard telling the Muslims in attendance that, “Jesus is the only way, in order to be saved you must become Christian, your god is a moon god and a devil and not the god of Abraham”.

At first there were only five counter-protesters to the 50 protesters, but then other counter-protesters started to come once word spread of the Extremist Christians and White Supremacists using assault weapons to bully the Muslims. The counter-protesters that showed solidarity with the Muslims were the Houston Socialist Movement, International Socialist Organization, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Refuse Fascism, Socialist Alternative, The New Black Panther Party, The Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and the Communist League.

Nobody expected the arrival of the New Black Panthers with the Huey P. Newton Gun club, but when they arrived people could be heard saying, “Who are these brothers?” as they marched in deep carrying assault weapons themselves. Soon the counter-protesters far outnumbered the protesters in a display to show that their fascism and hatred of other religions will not stand in America, not even in Texas.

Brother Maitreya, the chairman of the Houston Chapter of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club told the Houston Chronicle, “We wanted to let them know that Houston is a majority Black and Brown city and that they are not wanted here. We will be here as long as they are here…We are going to be here until we run them out of our city.”

Krystal Muhammad, a member of the New Black Panther Party told the Houston Chronicle, “They were ridiculous, they looked weak…They are anti-American. They are going against the First Amendment that guarantees people freedom of religion. They are going against basic human rights and are trying to deny someone’s religion, and that’s why we were here”.

Another counter-protester, Javier Olguin, told the Houston Chronicle, “If you read history books, you see the Jim Crow era, you see Japanese detainment camps, you see all of these atrocities that happen…a lot of people say to themselves, ‘If I were there, I would have done the right thing’ Its happening right now, and that is why everybody is out here. We’re seeing the oppression of a lot of people. When people are not doing anything, and they stay silent, they are complicit in that.”

There has been three arrests so far at the protests. One of the Texas Patriot Network members crossed the barricade and began punching a counter-protester. The three were placed in handcuffs and later released upon them leaving the protest. There seemed to be a total of between 80-100 protesters.

These protests show the inherent danger that Muslims and other ethnic minorities face from the Right-Wing extremists who are Hell bent of cleansing the USA of non-White, non-Christians. They feel that under the current regime that now is their time to rid the USA of people they deem as inferior and as a threat and that they have an ally in the White House who often dog whistles his support of White Nationalist groups while demonizing minorities as terrorists, rapists, and murderers.

America was founded upon the principles of the Freedom of Religion, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. The Texas Patriot Network state on their website that they are defending the right of all Texans, yet they want to prevent American Muslims from defending their rights. If you take away the civil rights of one group, then you take away the rights of all. To take away other rights in favor of a White Christian nation is hypocrisy and fascism. This behavior should never be tolerated in the USA.

Imagine, if a Muslim group of protesters armed with assault weapons went to a Baptist Convention, this would be on world news. But since it was at a Muslim event, this has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. We must ask, why is the news not covering this.

On behalf of the Muslim Community, I would like to thank the New Black Panther Party, The Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and the other counter-protesters for coming to the aid of our minority religious community and defending us in the face of oppression and tyranny. Jazakhullaah Khair.